TO THE PUBLIC. 


KersHaw County, 8. C., May 22, 1880. 
Captain W. L. DePass,«Camden, S. C: 

Str—In a case entitled “ C. M. Winges vs. A. E. Cash and others,” in 
which you are attorney for the plaintiff, you charge Mrs. Cash with 
fraud; and, although the copy of your summons and complaint served 
upon Mrs. Cash’s attorneys differs materially from the original, upon 
which you obtained an injunction, yet your whole course in the manage- 
ment of the case clearly shows that you did mean to impute fraud to 
Mrs. Cash, and I suspect that your object in withdrawing the most offen- 
sive expressions in the original was to.shirk a responsibility you had not 
the courage to meet. I regret very much my inability to act in this 
matter at earlier day, but to have done so would have subjected my con- 
duct to misconstruction, and, perhaps, prejudiced Mrs. Cash’s claims 
upon the Courts. As you have abandoned your charge of fraud, I now 
feel free to act in this matter, and while I neither claim for myself, nor 
acknowledge for you, that there is any social equality between us, yet, 
for the time being, and to accomplish the object I have in view, I waive 
all objections, and demand of you redress for the false imputations you 
have made against the character of Mrs. Cash. 

My friend, Mr. W. B. Sanders, will arrange with you for a meeting. 

s E. B. C. CASH. 


> 


CaMDEN, S. C., May 24th, 1880. 
Col. E. B. C. Casn: 

Srr—Your note of the 22d inst. was handed me yesterday by Mr. W. 
B. Sanders, and I take the earliest practicable opportunity of replying. 
It is couched in language unwarranted by the Code of Honor among 
gentlemen, in that it conveys an insult,and I-could most properly return 
it to you, but I waive this, and will readily accord you the satisfaction 
you demand. My friend, Dr. T. B. Legare, will arrange with your 
friend, Mr. W. B. Sanders, for a meeting. 

(Signed) W. L. DrEPASS. 


KInGYILLE, 8S. C., May 26, 1880. 
Mr. T. B. Lecare, Camden, S. C:: 

Dear Str—Sheriff Doby made an attempt on yesterday to arrest our 
party, but we evaded him. I have understood from rumor that your 
party were arrested. If such is the case, please inform me. If anything 
should transpire between now and the appointed time for fighting to 
prevent the fight, you will greatly oblige me by communicating the fact 
to me promptly. 

Yours, with respect, ¥ 
W. B. SANDERS. 


a 


FP we 


2 
ta 
CAMDEN, 8. C., May 26, 1880. <j 


Mr. W. B. SANDERS : a. 
Dear Str—I thank you for communicating with me, as I intend fo 
meet you to-day if it was possible. I was unexpectedly ret 09 
yesterday while in the discharge of my professional duties and had to 
give bond. As I cannot make my sureties liable, you will see that 
connection with the matter pending must terminate, and in doing 
permit me to express my gratification at the courtesy rendered me 
throughout our intercourse. Captain DePass, who is arrested, also in- 
forms me that he will communicate with you through a friend. As I 
deem it due Colonel E. B. C. Cash to explain the cireumstances under 
which I am placed, you will please read the accompanying letter and 
- place it in the hands of Colonel Cash. 
Yours, with respect, 
T. BURWICK LEGARE. 

I enclose this to you through the hands’ of your friend and relative 
who conveyed your communication of the 26th to me, and take this 
course to avoid observation as we are closely watched. 


CaMDEN, S. C., May 27, 1880. 
To Mr. W. B. Sanpers: 

Dear Srr—Your letter of the 26th inst. to Dr. T. B. Legare, desiring 
to know whether the rumor was true that he and I were arrested or not, 
&c., and his answer stating the fact, and that I would communicate with 
you at the earliest practicable moment, has been received. I now inform 
you that Col. L. W. R. Blair is authorized to act forme. A simi- 
lar to this has been forwarded by me to Col. E. B. C. Cash. ¢ 


Respectfully, 
W. L. DePASS. 


CAMDEN, 8. C., May 27, 1880. 
To Cou. E. B. C. Casu: 

Srr—Dr. Legare having informed your friend, Mr. W. B. Sanders, in 
response to his communication of the 26th, that he and myself had been 
arrested, and that I would communicate with you as soon as practicable, 
I inform you now that, owing to the arrest of Dr. Legare, spoken of, 
Col. L. W. R. Blair is authorized to act for me. 

W. L. DePASS. 


Casu’s Depot, 8. C., May 27, 1880. 
Cou. E. B. C. Casa: . 

Dear Str—I have the honor to hand you a note from Capt. William 
L. DePass and to say that Capt. DePass will meet you at any time you 
may designate, beyond the limits or the State of South Carolina, to dis- 
cuss and adjust matters of disagreement existing between yourself and 
him, and, at all events, to accord to you such satisfaction as you may 
then demand. 


3 


We may subsequently confer concerning the particular place beyoad 
the limits of the State which we shall fix upon. 
I am, sir, with considerations of high esteem, 
Your obedient servant, 


L. W. R. BLAIR. 


A 
Drxir’s Rerreat, June 19th, 1880. 
Captain W. L. DePass, Camden, 8. C: 

My Dear Str—Betore seeing Gen. Cash’s placard against you I had 
written a communication to the Carolina Sun correcting misrepresenta- 
tions apparently referring to you in an article on the “Camden Anti- 
Duelling Society,” published in that paper. The appearance of the 
placard renders it my duty; in justice both to yourself and me, to place 
before the public a more explicit statement of what passed between 
Gen. Cash, or his official friend, Col. Watts, and me with reference to 

ou. 

On the 27th or 28th ultimo I visited Gen. Cash to deliver to hima 
note from you accrediting me as your official friend, and also one from 
myself, in which I say: “Captain DePass will meet you at any time you 
may designate, beyond the limits of the State of South Carolina, to dis- 
cuss and adjust matters of disagreement between yourself and him, and 
at all events to accord to you such satisfaction as you may then demand.” 
Not desiring to intrude upon the privacy of his residence, I stopped at 
Cash’s Depot and sent in a note announcing my presence and purpose, 
- and requesting Gen. Cash to come out to the depot and receive my com- 

munication. He was not at home, but ‘his son, Captain Cash, in com- 
pany with Col. Watts, came out, and, fully aware of the nature of my 
visit, pressed me so cordially to accept his hospitality that I became his 
guest for the afternoon and night. And it may not be out of place for 
me to say here that I was never more strongly or more favorably im- 
pressed than by the high-bred hospitality, manly tone and gentlemanly 
bearing of this gentleman and his father, whose acquaintance I had 
never betore formed. 

Upon General Cash’s arrival, in the evening, we discussed the ques- 
tion of where the next meeting should take place. I strongly desired 
that it should be on the Georgia frontier, but both General Cash and 
Colonel Watts objected that it would be useless for them to attempt to 
meet there, as tnere was but little chance of their getting through with- 
out being arrested, and urged that the meeting should be in North Caro- 
lina, near the point where the plank road from Cheraw to Wadesboro 

‘crosses the State line—a point not more than eighteen miles distant from 
General Cash’s residence, while it is some sixty-five or seventy miles from 
you, and inaccessible except by private conveyance. However, finding 
their objections to the Georgia frontier insuperable, and knowing your 
earnest desire that nothing on your behalf should impede the meeting, I 
yielded this point, and the meeting was appointed to be at seven o’clock 
A. M. on the following Thursday, the hour being subsequently changed 
before we parted to twelve o’clock M. on the same day. After your ar- 
rest I arrived on the ground about twelve o’clock, or, perhaps, a few 
minutes before, and mentioned to Col. Watts that, being unacquainted 
with the roads, I had been apprehensive that I might be a few moments 


PS8844 


4 


too late, but neither he nor General Cash nor any one suggested misap- 
prehension as to the time of meeting, so that there could be no miscon- 
ception on that subject, nor had they to wait one minute after the time 
appointed for the meeting until I arrived. On my arrival I found an 
assembiage of some fifteen or twenty gentlemen on the ground; these, 
Colonel Watts informed me, were not of General Cash’s party, but per- 
sons who had come out to witness the spectacle, as the people all alon 
the way he had come knew the place and hour of the ‘meeting, 
General Cash had with difficulty escaped arrest on the way. The same 
information was given to me subsequently by General Cash. As soon as 
I arrived on the ground I called Colonel Watts aside and acquainted 
him with the fact of your arrest and cause of your absence. He seemed, 
as a lawyer, to consider the arrest illegal, and said that you could be 
bailed and proceed with the purpose of our meeting without pecuniary 
risk to your securities, and, in fine, generously proposed that General 
Cash would be your security for that purpose, and, taking, at the moment, 
his own view of the matter, that it could not be attended with any pecuniary 
risk to General Cash, 1 promptly accepted the romantic and chivalrous” 
proposal, but Colonel Watts requested time to consult General Cash, and 
on his return withdrew the proposition, informing me that General Cash 
took a different view of it. 

I then assured Colonel Watts that you would respond to General Cash’s 
demand at the earliest moment you could be relieved of the legal impedi- 
ments. He asked me when that would be. I answered at a year and a 
day, when your bonds would expire. He replied that you might then 
renew the matter by making a demand on General Cash; that General 
Cash would not pursue his demand on you any further, but publish the- 
correspondence. I asked to be informed explicitly what he meant by 
this, and he told me that his purpose was simply to publigh the corres- 
pondence which had occurred, to which I could offer no objection. All 
these communications were verbal, but my recollection of them is clear 
‘and strong, leaving no room for possible error or mistake. 

General Cash, in his placard, states that vo friend of his caused the 
arrest. Far from me be such a suspicion! But this is perfectly appar- 
ent to every one: That while we proposed, by every means in our power, to 
obviate the effect of the arrest, and ultimately (though with necessary 
and unavoidable delay) to bring about the desired meeting, General 
Cash, by a placard, unprecedented among gentlemen, and unjustifiable 
by the facts and circumstances of the case, has rendered it absolutely ef- 
fective, placing it out of your power ever to accord to or demand from 
him a meeting on the field of honor, and depriving himself of all re- 
dress on you other than by the fulfillment of his implied inconsiderate 
and rather extravagant threat—a threat which I dare assert that neither 
he vor any man will ever execute. 

With considerations of high esteem and regard, I am, my dear sir, 

Your friend and obedient servant, 


L. W. R. BLAIR. 





5) 


It will be seen by those who have read the circular of E. B. C. Cash, 
and of this, together with the letter of Colonel Blair to me, accompany- 
ing this, that he has placed before the public: only a part of the 
correspondence between us and our respective friends, and has altogether 
left out what verbally occurred between our respective friends and Col. 
Blair and himself both at his own house and on the field. 

If his object was by this suppression of facts and by his comments for 
what he would have others believe was my conduct in the affair, to 
create a public opinion in presenting himself in the character of a much 
injured gentleman seeking that redress usual among men of honor and 
denied to him by the wrong-doer, who, having been summoned to render 
satisfaction and accepting the same, under cover of legal arrests, eagerly 
availed of, seeks to avoid the dangers of a responsibility he has assumed, 
he has defeated his own purpose. For his own showing proves that he 
violated the first principle of the code of honor in sending me a per- 
emptory challenge for an alleged offense, couched in language conveying 
an insult, (sternly prohibited’ by the code,) instead of what he should 
have done: first demanding an explanation of the cause of offense and 
awaiting my reply, which, if unsatisfactory, would have then justified a 
peremptory challenge. Such conduct on the part of those who seek re- 
venge will always, as it ever has done, cause the code of honor and its 
purpose to forever be misunderstood. It is not, nor ever was, intended 
to gratify the revenge of the /aw/ess, but to guard the honor and protect 
the character of the gentleman in his intercourse with others. This 
placard shows, in the next place, that the demand was promptly 
accepted, that all that could be done upou my part was done, even sur- 
mounting two arrests under the law, and only prevented from the meet- 
ing by a third, and that away from my own home and in that of my 
ungenerous foe. The scurrility of the placard with which I have been 
assailed forms no part of the truth, (for it is always easy for any boastful 
fellow to slander a gentleman and say what he intended to do, more 
especially when, at the time, he knows that his opponent's hands are tied 
down by the law, which binds him, under heavy penalties, to keep the 
peace toward all the citizens of the State, and more especially toward 
him,) but demands at my hands a brief statement of easily established 
facts. Geu. Cash’s assertion that 1 wantonly cast any reproach upon the 
character of his wife is groundless. It could only have been excusable 
even if it was deserved and had been necessary to the interests of my 
elient, for I would not have shrunk from the performance of any duty 
as a lawyer. But in this case it was in no respect necessary to cast the 
slightest aspersion upon the character of Mrs. Cash, and I most 
studiously avoided doing so. This I was at all times ready to incon- 
testibly prove to Gen. Cash, had he afforded me an opportunity. But, 
after waiting nearly seven months from the alleged offense, Gen. Cash 
sends me a peremptory challenge, couched in such offensive and improper 
terms as would have justified me, under the code, in treating it with 
contempt had I desired to deny him the satisfaction he demanded. 

The challenge was handed to me by Mr. W. B. Sanders on the most 
public day and in the most public possible place, just as I was coming 
out of the Court House where I had presided over the County Demo- 
cratic Convention. { referred him to my friend Gen. Kennedy, and 
promised to inform Gen. Kennedy that he was stopping at the DeKalb 
Hotel. Shortly after, on going to Gen. Kennedy’s office to communicate 


P58844 


6 


with him, I found Mr. Sanders and Col. R. C. Watts seated there with 
some eight or ten other gentlemen. Moreover, I was informed by the 
Sheriff, Mr. Doby, that he had heard from several persons before the 
Convention adjourned that a challenge would be handed to me from E. 
B. C. Cash on that day; and by sundown it was the town talk and in 
the mouth of every man, woman and child in the community. Now, 
whence came this information? Certainly not from me, for I knew 
nothing of it until the challenge was handed me in the manner and at 
the time I have before said. And who is responsible for the publicity 
given to this affair, and which roused this community against duelling 
and caused the arrest of myself and my friend, Dr. Legare? Let the 
facts I have just mentioned answer. 

Dr. Legare had arranged with Mr. Sanders that a meeting should 
take place between Gen. Cash aud myself at DuBose’s Bridge, on the 
30th day of May, at 12 o’clock M., but we were both arrested on the 
Tuesday preceding, (the same day that the Sheriff informed me he 
attempted to arrest Gen. Cash and his friend Mr. Sanders, but who, on 
seeing him approach the house from a distance, ran across the line into 
Sumter County, but a few hundred yards from the residence of R. G. 
Ellerbee, where they were then sojourning.) 

Dr. Legare immediately informed Mr. Sanders of that event, he 
(Mr. Sanders) having addressed (as will be seen) a note to him asking 
for information of what had been rumored. 

My friend, Col. Blair, went, on the 27th of May, to Mr. Sanders to 
find Gen. Cash, but was informed by Mr. Sanders that Gen. Cash had 
gone home and that he (Sanders) was no longer authorized to act for 
him. He then immediately sought him at his own residence at Cash’s 
Depot, in Chesterfield County. ‘ 

For what subsequently transpired I refer to Col. Blair’s letter, ad- - 
dressed to me fur publication. Now, where did Gen. Cash have to “wait 
hour after hour on the ground only to be at last informed that Capt. 
DePass had been arrested or rearrested and could not fight?” The 
time for the first meeting at Du Bose’s Bridge had not arrived until after 
the second arrangement was made witn Colonel Blair, and Colonel 
Blair’s letter shows that after my third arrest he was promptly on the 
ground at the moment appointed, and bad not to wait one minute. 
~ And why did General Cash, when I had been thrice arrested, without 
fault of mine, refuse to wait until I could be relieved from liabilities 
which would have seriously embarrassed my family in the event of my 
death, when he himself, under a frivolous pretext, (for it is nothing more, ) 
had deferred the challenge for nearly seven months after the alleged 
offense, and thereby entitled me, under a peremptory rule of the Code, 
apart from arrest, or any other contingency, to take twice that period to 
respond to his demand? I shall not condescend to impugn General Cash’s 
character as a gentlemen or a man of true courage, certainly not after 
having accepted his challenge, whether it be vulnerable or not upon 
those points. But I can certainly smile most complacently at all his seur- 
rilities until he gives a satisfactory answer to these questions, and explain 
conduct which, throughout, is the most extraordinary that a gentleman and 


man of true courage ever felé into. W. L. DePASS 
. L. DE ; 


Campen, 8. C., June 20, 1880. 


